Sonic Mania
Sonic Mania is a side-scrolling platform game developed by Headcannon, PagodaWest Games and Vicarious Visions, published by Sega and Sierra Entertainment and distributed by Activision for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. An installment in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, the game was announced in commemoration of its 25th anniversary, and was released worldwide in August 2017. The game is largely inspired by the original Sonic the Hedgehog games released for the Sega Genesis, and features 2D graphics and remastered versions of stages from previous games alongside new stages. The player controls Sonic the Hedgehog and his companions Tails and Knuckles as they venture to reach a mysterious energy source before their nemesis Doctor Eggman and his henchmen, the Hard-Boiled Heavies. Development of Sonic Mania was led by programmer Christian "Taxman" Whitehead, who had previously worked on enhanced ports of early Sonic games. Art, level design, audio, and additional programming were provided by the independent studios Headcannon, PagodaWest Games and Vicarious Visions, chosen for their work in the Sonic fangame community. Upon release, Sonic Mania was met with generally favorable reception, with critics highlighting its faithfulness to the series' Genesis-era titles, and many viewing the game as a return to form for the series that will help repair its poor reputation that resulted from a number of poorly-received Sonic titles released after the 1990s. Gameplay Sonic Mania is a sprite-based, side-scrolling platform game in the style of the earlier Sonic games released for the Sega Genesis. Players select one of three playable characters, each with their own unique abilities. Sonic can perform a "drop dash" which sends him rolling in a dash after a jump, Tails can fly and swim, and Knuckles can glide and climb walls. As with Sonic the Hedgehog 2, players can either play as Sonic and Tails simultaneously, or allow Tails to be independently controlled by a second player. Sonic Mania takes place over twelve levels, called zones. Each zone is divided into two acts, in which the player must guide their character to defeat Doctor Eggman and his henchmen, the "Hard-Boiled Heavies", customized versions of the Eggrobo enemies from Sonic & Knuckles. At the end of each act, the player takes part in a boss battle; a Hard-Boiled Heavy mini-boss is fought at the end of the first act, with a fight against Eggman in the second. Similar to Sonic & Knuckles, the game's story is told via short in-game cutscenes at the end of each act. The game features original levels alongside "remixed" levels from past games, such as Green Hill Zone from the original Sonic the Hedgehog. Scattered around acts are golden rings, which serve as a form of health: players survive hits as long as they have at least one ring, but their rings will scatter and disappear. Television monitors contain rings, elemental shields, or power-ups such as invincibility and speed. Giant rings hidden in each act, a feature of the original games, lead to pseudo-3D special stages similar to those in Sonic CD. In the stages, players dodge obstacles and collect colored spheres to increase their speed, allowing them to pursue a UFO carrying a Chaos Emerald; collecting all seven Chaos Emeralds unlocks the game's true ending. Players' ring counters slowly decrease during special stages and must be continually replenished; if the player runs out of rings before they catch the UFO, the special stage ends. The "Blue Sphere" bonus stages from Sonic the Hedgehog 3 also return, accessed by entering a portal that appears when the player passes a checkpoint while carrying 25 or more rings; successfully completing bonus stages unlocks additional features. In the time attack mode, players must complete levels as quickly as possible, with the best times included on an online leaderboard; players can instantly reload a level to restart a stage and try again at any time. A split-screen competitive multiplayer mode allows two players to race to the end of a level, similar to those of Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Plot Following the events of Sonic & Knuckles, Sonic (voiced by Robbie Daymond), Tails (voiced by Gwendoline Yeo), and Knuckles (voiced by Ogie Banks) receive a mysterious powerful energy reading from far away. The three take to the skies aboard Tails's plane, the Tornado, to discover the source. However, Doctor Eggman (voiced by Jim Cummings) has sent his robotic henchmen, the Hard-Boiled Heavies (voiced by Fred Tatasciore, Dee Bradley Baker, Patrick Seitz and Kevin Michael Richardson), to reach the signal first. Development Development began in 2016, when Sonic Mania project leader and lead programmer Christian "Taxman" Whitehead presented a prototype titled Sonic Discovery to Sonic series producer Takashi Iizuka. Iizuka, describing it a "passion product" born out of the fans' love for the early Sonic games, retitled it Sonic Mania, stating that the project was "by the mania, for the mania". Whitehead had previously worked on the enhanced mobile ports of Sonic CD, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Sonic the Hedgehog 2. The team also included programmer Simon "Stealth" Thomley of Headcannon, who assisted Whitehead with those projects and on various Sonic fangames and ROM hacks, level designer Jared Kasl and artist Tom Fry, who previously collaborated on an unofficial high-definition remaster of Sonic 2, and Sega producer Lola Shiraishi. The game features an opening animated sequence created by Tyson Hesse, one of the artists of the Archie Comics ''Sonic'' comic book series. The music score was later composed by Benjamin Wallfisch with the additional music also composed by Ric Markmann, Dan Pinnella and Chris Wagner as the main theme written by Hans Zimmer while the original themes from the video games Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic & Knuckles who were written by the late composers Jerry Goldsmith and Alexander Courage which was later arranged by Benjamin Wallfisch. The game was announced alongside Sonic Forces during the 25th anniversary Sonic event at the San Diego Comic-Con event in July 2016. The game features many references and throwbacks to past Sonic titles of the era, such as including an optional CRT graphical filter. The game is set for release for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One in North America and Europe on August 15, 2017, and in Japan the following day. Tantalus Media helped develop the Nintendo Switch port of the game. Days before release, Sega announced that the Microsoft Windows version of the game had been delayed for two weeks for optimization. As compensation, those who had pre-ordered the game received a copy of the original Sonic the Hedgehog on Steam. Promotion In September 2016, Sega announced a Sega Genesis-themed collector's edition for pre-order, containing a 12-inch (30 cm) Sonic statue atop a model Genesis, a game cartridge cast with a golden ring, and a metallic collector's card with a download code for the game. To promote the collector's edition, Sega released a retro-styled infomercial featuring former series art director Kazuyuki Hoshino and social media manager Aaron Webber, based on an American television commercial for Sonic 2. The game's release date was announced via a trailer released in May. A vinyl LP featuring tracks from the soundtrack of Benjamin Wallfisch will be published by WaterTower Music. Attendees of the Sonic Mania panel at the 2017 San Diego Comic-Con received a promotional instruction manual for the game. Reception Pre-release Sonic Mania was announced following years of mixed reviews for the Sonic franchise; according to the International Business Times, the series had been "tarnished by years of sub-par games with only the occasional gem". Despite doubts following "two decades of disappointing Sonic games", Nick Robinson of Polygon called Sonic Mania a "revelatory moment" after playing a preview, and said it was his most anticipated game of 2017. Alex Donaldson of VG24/7 stated that Sonic Mania was the sequel he had wanted for over 20 years, praising its visuals, music, and the inclusion of obscure Sonic and Sega references. He and Robinson praised Sega's decision to have fans develop Sonic Mania, with Robinson stating that Sega's own efforts to develop side-scrolling Sonic games in the "classic" style, such as Sonic Advance (2001) and Sonic the Hedgehog 4 (2010), never felt "quite right". Andrew Goldfarb of IGN stated that Sonic Mania excited him in a way that Sonic the Hedgehog 4 had not. Jack Hamnett of Twinfinite praised the game's attention to detail and how faithful it felt to the original games, saying that it had the potential to return the series to its "former glory". The International Business Times wrote that Sega's approach of releasing Sonic Forces and Sonic Mania in the same year, catering to new and old fans, could help repair the series' reputation and lead to a "Sonic renaissance". Sonic Mania was named one of the best games shown at E3 2017 by The Guardian, Ars Technica, Twinfinite, and Saucy Gamer, with Ars Technica Sam Machkovech naming it his "game of the show". Jeffery L. Wilson of PC Magazine named the game one of his "favorite moments" of E3 and wrote that of Sonic Mania and Sonic Forces, Mania "is the one carrying hype for all of the right reasons". Chaim Gartenberg of The Verge wrote that the game felt accurate to the original Genesis games, describing it as "the re-created ghost of Sonic past". IGN nominated it as the show's "Best Platformer" and "Best Nintendo Switch Game", though it lost both to Super Mario Odyssey. Post-release Sonic Mania received "generally favourable" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic. External links *Official website Category:Upcoming video games scheduled for 2017 Category:Sega video games Category:Side-scrolling platform games Category:Sonic the Hedgehog video games Category:Nintendo Switch games Category:Platform games Category:PlayStation 4 games Category:Xbox One games Category:Windows games Category:Multiplayer and single-player video games Category:Vicarious Visions games Category:Sierra Entertainment games Category:Activision games Category:Film scores by Benjamin Wallfisch